Sunday, July 12, 2009

Call to Silence & Opening Meditation

From the deepest part of yourself, let love be born for the rays of the One that shine around you...

Let this come from your whole heart -
the center of your life: your passion, courage, and audacity -
and touch your whole subconscious self -
that instinctive soul within which scatters and gathers.

From this self liberate your whole animal energy and
life force to flood your entire grasping mind with love.

Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus.
Neil Douglas Klotz, HarperSanFrancisco, 1990, pg.80.

Readings from the Lost Gospel of Q (edited by Marcus Borg, Berkeley: Seastone, 1996)

Love Your enemies,
do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who treat you badly.*

(*the idea of loving your enemies rather than retaliating against them was as radical in Jesus' time as it is today. As one ancient Greek thinker put it, 'I consider it established that one should do harm to one's enemies and be of service to one's friends.'"

When someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer them the other cheek, too.
When someone takes your coat from you, let them have your shirt as well.
Give to everyone who asks. And if someone robs you, don't demand your property back.*

(*To strike someone on the right cheek usually meant striking them with the back of the hand. In Middle Eastern culture, this was twice as insulting as a slap delivered with the palm of the hand.)

Treat people as you would like them to treat you.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you do good only to those who do good to you, what merit is there in that? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what reward is there in that? Even sinners lend to sinners.

Instead, love your enemies and do good, expecting nothing in return. You will have a great reward, and you will be children of your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on the bad and the good.
He sends rain to fall on both the just and the unjust.*

(*The original Hebrew word translated as "to sin" in the Bible actually meant "to miss the mark," the way an arrow misses its target.)

Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give, and there will be gifts for you. A full measure of grain, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap;
Because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.

A Reading from the Gospel of Mary

"What is matter? Will it last forever?"

The Teacher answered: "All that is born, all that is created, all the elements of nature are interwoven and united with each other. All that is composed shall be decomposed; everything returns to its roots; matter returns to the origins of matter. Those who have ears, let them hear.:

Call to Conversation:

Closing Meditation:

From a hidden place,
unite with your enemies from the inside,
fill the inner void that makes them swell outwardly and fall
out of rhythm:" instead of progressing, step by step,
they stop and start harshly,
out of time with you.

Bring yourself back into rhythm within,
Find the movement that mates with theirs -
like two lovers creating life from dust.
Do this work in secret, so they don't know.
This kind of love creates, it doesn't emote.

Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus.
Neil Douglas Klotz, HarperSanFrancisco, 1990, pg.84